The action comes less than a month after a Journal News investigation revealed that Lee, the host of four television shows on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel, had carried out extensive renovations at the home without getting building permits for the work and without triggering any increase in the home's taxable value. The improvements were widely covered in profiles of Lee in USA Today and Vogue, among others.

Platz said he based his valuation on a May 27 exterior inspection of the house Lee calls Lily Pond. Assessors do not have a right to inspect a home's interior and Platz said in this case he was denied access.

"I was forced to estimate what I thought they had," Platz said.

William O'Reilly, a campaign spokesman for Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who is challenging Cuomo for governor, said the Lily Pond situation smacked of a double standard.

"This is what drives New Yorkers crazy; one set of rules for them and a separate set of rules for the politically powerful," O'Reilly said. "If it hadn't been for the Gannett investigation, this tax evasion could have gone on ad infinitum. The question now is whether Governor Cuomo's household will pay the taxes that should have been paid retroactively."